by John Glynn. Pics by Gerard Brown/Enduro Rally and Turbo’s Boys in Egypt

The number 45 911 of Joost van Cauwenberge and Jacques Castalein is demonstrating relentless pace on the London Cape Town. Down to 7th after a penalty for non-standard dampers, the Porsche is now back up to 3rd overall and setting some blistering times. I should point out that the damper fitment was discussed with the organisers before the off: the top dogs knew what was on the car but waited until Nairobi to apply a one-hour penalty.

“We discussed the damper options with the organisers before the event,” says Richard Tuthill. “While we knew our modern-style dampers would eventually incur a time penalty, our experience in Kenya (Safari Rally winners) told us it was worth it. The car’s reliability and the speed it can carry over this terrain vindicates the choice. It has backfired a little, as the organisers have now cancelled some of the rougher sections of the event to protect lesser-prepared cars, but the Tuthill 911 is still running a strong pace and giving the crew a consistent package they can trust.”

The official rally reports always make for interesting reading and this was part of the last one: “The rocky mountain climb saw Alastair Caldwell split his fuel tank. He slowed just enough to give Jane Edgington her finest moment so far: driving a Maestro in an overtaking sweep past the Porsche on a timed mountain climb. The Blunt Subaru was slowed by overheating, while the Cauwenberge Porsche 911 was a remarkable sight lifting a front wheel while hanging the back out...”

The 911 duo are clearly revelling in the conditions and who could blame them? Driving one of those magnificent Tuthill Porsches across such epic terrain – in the bigger picture of a rally from London to Cape Town – must be a magnificent adventure. Add speed and talent to the equation and get yourself up to a competitive position? It’s what heroes are made of. I envy Joost and Jacques something rotten, but possibly not as much as Hayden and Alastair in the amazing 912.

The organisers’ note on Alastair and Hayden’s fuel tank is correct: Hayden filled me in last night with a text. Though there is work to be done on the 912 (no idea why we haven’t named that car yet), the boys are also loving it and holding a steady seventh overall – just a few minutes down on the Belgian Landcruiser 80 series (one of four 4x4s in the top seven). As the proud owner of a sturdy Landcruiser 80, I’m all for the Toyota taking it to the top five, but the 912 deserves a top five place for what it is going through. Hayden’s texts describing events just keep getting better:

“Another gruelling day, followed by midnight in the car park making running repairs, upgrades and routine maintenance.

We got a huge amount of mud injected into the gap between the now badly battered floorpan and the equally battered rear skid plate. The net result was a jammed throttle – about 20% after a quick stop to investigate it was clear that it was not a quick repair – so we jumped back in and drove the balance of the second and all the 3rd World Cup sections using the ignition switch for the throttle control and co-driver for gear changing. We got pretty proficient, only dropping one additional minute on the third section once AC nursed the throttle to about 80% stuck open.

We burned too much time making a modest repair in the final road section and had to really boogie (78+ AV) to make the end of day without penalty, this push was at the expense of another RF strut insert that melted in protest. So we have modified the skid with some local Dodoma sheet metal and replaced the RF insert. We will see what tomorrow brings…

We still have no driver window, no passenger door latch and this afternoon the wipers suddenly turned on and gave us a breakdance display before stopping in the upright position – a mystery for another night.”

Next day:

“Day 21 casualty was the fuel tank. We are constantly suffering loss of front ride height due to yielding aftermarket front torsion bar (supplier name deliberately not revealed). The bottom of the tank has been relentlessly pounded, even though it is well protected from abrasion and piercing by the front skid plate.

About 15km in to the first road section we started to smell fuel. The 95 litre tank was full, so we took the calculated risk to proceed when it appeared to be a modest leak. Ultimately we made it to the end of day, leaking about the same amount as we were burning.

First to end of day control, tank out, AC walked up the road with a local boy to a banzai welder who brazed up 3 cracks. Tank back on before the last car was into TC. Cranked in front ride height again and we were off.

First car thru the border to Zambia, we have 360km to the hotel, then back to items on our long job list – then last night added wipers when we discovered the rattle on the dash, days ago, was self disassembly of the wiper motor from its bracketry! Harsh event, great exposure to system weaknesses!“

By John Glynn. Pics by Gerard Brown/Rally Organisers

Day 19 on the London to Cape Town and it’s back to business as normal in Africa: smashing nice cars to pieces! If this keeps up, then perhaps only the support 4x4s will take the flag in Cape Town.

At the end of Day 17, the 911 lay 3rd with the 912 6th. A quick protest on dampers and the 911 lost an hour: putting the 912 ahead of it at the half way point.

Yesterday was a rest day – if you call it that. Just swapped some texts with Hayden to catch up with what’s going on.

Epic rest day yesterday. AC will try to send you some pics. Today was the most dangerous so far. Punishing averages: 120 km/h for 32 km in one section. To preserve the car, we dropped about 30 mins, which will be less than many. Don’t expect it to affect our 2-litre Classic lead.

Just did some WEVO Kilimanjaro: new oil cooler brackets. Old ones were cracked and broken, held together with zip ties, but too much to get done on the rest day, so it got rolled to tonight’s list. So it goes!

We are on Bilsteins at the rear now too, after we destroyed one Ohlin as the result of a third party vendor error: no Loctite, in spite of the WEVO order spec. A part self-disassembled and lead to a spiral downfall that we are still recovering from.

I asked how the 911 had been demoted from third to seventh position:

That is correct, they were finally penalised 1 hour for non-compliance of dampers being remote canister style. Forbidden in Classic classes. Car 10 was given same. So at the mid way, the 912 was leading the 911 in spite of precious little likelihood.

As far as I can see there is a 2 min error on day 19 sheets and we should have taken that time off the 33 car. We are shown as early at a TC, yet we followed the 33 in on 2 min intervals. One to sort in the morning. Sleep now, WEVOmanjaro out.

Huge list of failures today: lots of our friends ended up on trucks. Here’s an excerpt from the organisers’ report:

Our course was remote rallying down long mostly-sandy tracks – choking dust clouds cutting visibility in the early-morning sunshine was predictable, so crews started at two-minute intervals. It was an example of Kenyan rally-tracks at their best, but it was not to everyone’s liking; Alastair Caldwell reckoned it was difficult for cars that have already suffered greatly.

Underlining just how hard African rallying really is, Steve Blunt in the Subaru (P2 overall) posted another good time today but finished with bent front suspension after opting for a change to longer springs yesterday which proved to be too soft. The driver was all about “is it ain;t broke, don;t fix it” when he reached the Tanzanian border.

The 964 Porsche of Tomas Prenosil (above) caught fire while on the back of a truck trying to reach the border. Flames engulfed the whole car, including one and their carnets. Francis Tuthill, riding inside the top ten driving a Toyota Hilux, came out of the bush with a bent rear axle and arrived at the hotel on the back of a truck. Car 31, the VW Karmann Ghia (below), has fuel-pump problems after a dose of fuel so dirty the fuel-pump gave up trying.

Tomorrow is a car-killing rally all on its own! The route goes from Arusha to Dodoma: a favourite of the old Safari Rally. The day is 440 kilometres long and is bound to be misery squared for some.

After Tanzania we get into Zambia and Namibia before hitting South Africa. It doesn’t get any easier: Jan 25th is over 1,000 kilometres long…

By John Glynn. Pictures: Bert Callens and Alltrack.be

Day 17 of the London to Cape Town Rally and all dreams of a quick breeze down a ‘civilised’ East African coast have been smashed to smithereens. So have most of the cars competing on the rally, thanks to the horrendous Marsabit to Nairobi road.

Had a text from Hayden today, huge essay packed with nice insider detail from the cockpit of the 912. He’s been suffering a stomach bug hence the radio silence. Here’s what he says:

Has been a tough 72 hours. But in spite of the rigours, we have still picked up a position I understand, was told 6th last night.

Ethiopia was fantastic. Hundreds of thousands, if not into the millions, lined the roadway all the way. Friendly, curious, proud: not at all like my preconceptions of Ethiopia. Crossing the border at Moyale was a complete let down: that part of Kenya is in poor shape compared to their northern neighbours.

Day 15 only had one tight time section with a 107km/hr average, turned out to be on Tarmac across the plains so I expect everyone cleaned it. In contrast, day 16 was a car breaker: only the Tuthill Porsche cleaned this section and the 912 (other than 4WD’s). It was at some expense to us: we had a puncture in the first 15km, then in our push to get back on time, we broke the LR damper. We did not stop to check, just pushed on with about 30km to go. The noise was horrific and when we stopped, the upper mount had been battered to pulp. We were able to fix it with parts on board and continue.

The balance on the day – another 170km was equally insane, roads like a quarry floor, not really roads at all. We had another puncture and blew the RF damper insert getting into Marsabit. In contrast to the P2P, equally rough, but for 10 times the distance. Other blogs may have better descriptions.

My last 48 hours has been a fevered mess, as I got a stomach infection in Moyale and was next to useless yesterday afternoon when we got to Marsabit. Doc Moe gave me the good stuff and it seems to have knocked it. I am looking forwards to a meal tonight: my first solids in 48 hours. AC has taken the 912 across town to the workshop we will be using on the rest day tomorrow.

The 400km of extreme stony roads has taken its toll on the 912. Today in some soft sandy tracks we had to take down some small trees – at speed – resulting in a bit more body damage. We gave up 29 minutes today when one section was impossibly fast for us, plus we had a puncture which after a flat tyre this morning before the off gave us no spares, so prudence was necessary. I am sure we lost time to the Volvo we are battling in Class C but not sure if it was enough to reverse our positions.

More later, need to sleep and be fresh to work on the car in the morning.

Here’s the day’s headlines from the organisers:

Cars are now arriving at the big thatched awning of the old-colonial Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. It’s hard to believe that one of the worst roads in the whole of Africa is actually the main road to Nairobi.

• The Joost Van Cauwenberge Porsche breezed it, as did Andy Actman’s Hilux but most of the rally are limping to Nairobi.
• The Atherton/Henchoz Volvo reeks of petrol with a split rubber petrol pipe and broken Range Rover engine mounts. “…otherwise it’s a mint condition Volvo” says Richard.
• David Spurling, Peugeot 504 arrived happy to be only 40 minutes late describing “130 km of tracks comprising a mix of goat tracks churned up by JCB and vile corrugations.”
• Stuart Rhys-Williams and Colin McConnell, Nissan Patrol, used a tow rope to pull the BMW X5 of Robert Belcher and Stephen Cooper back onto four wheels after it fell on its side. The BMW is now on a truck.
• The Tomas Prenosil, Lukas Kuttler Porsche 911 (964 C4) is also on a truck.
• Jane Edgington and Gill Cotton were the first small car to reach Nairobi. They have a bonnet pin torn out by vibration. Jane said “it’s the only thing broken but it’s crying out for some service …I now know what hell looks like, truly dreadful road …it’s an amazing car, I just don’t know how it got here. There’s carnage out there.”
• The remarkable catch-up drive of Ben and Mike Dawson’s Escort Mk2 continues. At 19:30 local they are just 260kms from Nairobi.
• Alex Thistlethwayte and David Hiscox, who are running very close to the Dawson Escort, have tweeted that they spent last night camped on the roof of their Datsun 240Z believing that hyenas do not jump.

Would still love to be on this rally – sounds absolutely epic. Found the pic below last night: could be my favourite of the rally so far.

By John Glynn

More news in from Kenya. It’s been a tough day: many are arriving back to base well late and five cars are still stuck in the desert – but the two top ten Porsches are making more ground on the leaderboard.

Hayden is clearly keeping busy, hence the lack of texts. The organisers say that, despite changing a puncture and a shock absorber on the stage, he and Alastair Caldwell in the Porsche 912 cleaned the timed section: stunning work that brought them back up to P6 overall.

However, the organisers also report a damaged top mount on the 35 car: hopefully the 911 might have a spare one if this is beyond repair. We also have some friends in Kenya thanks to Safari, so I am not too worried for them: there will be spares somewhere close by. Interchangeability between 911 and 912 is one reason Hayden picked a ’68 912.

Joost and Jacques in the Tuthill 911 are third overall at the end of Day 16, with the MG ZR that had been quick in Europe now dropping down the order thanks to blowing all of its shock absorbers on this crazy stage to Mars (Marsabit). No reported problems for Joost and Jacques today.

All that lies between Joost and the lead is a 2006 Subaru Impreza and a 2010 Toyota HiLux. A 1973 Porsche 911 beaten through the desert by a pair of modern 4x4s with air conditioning all all the toys seems fair enough, but the Porsche is not being beaten. It is catching them up.

The 2002 MG ZR is fourth, followed by a 2005 Land Rover Defender TD5. Behind that is a 1968 four-cylinder Porsche 912, built in a garage in San Francisco – not at the home of the Safari Rally winners. Awesome work by the Caldwell/Burvill team, but there’s a way to go yet. Fingers crossed!

Anyone still hammering pre-’73 912s as a poor man’s 911 or the rich man’s Beetle had better think again: these are seriously competitive rally cars when prepared by the right workshop. Hayden and I were discussing the possibility of some more high end WEVO rally-spec 912 builds should this car do well in Africa, and it is beginning to feel like that might come to pass if things keep rolling our way.

Classic Porsches and Classic Porsche people are the greatest things on four wheels. No question!

By John Glynn. Pics by Gerard Brown

I’m just back from three blurry days in Ireland on my little brother’s stag do.

Hayden sent me a quick text on Friday by way of update, but this is the first chance I’ve had to blog it. Not heard much since, no doubt due to communication network availability. As soon as I get more news, I will let you know.

The Rally has been travelling through Sudan and Ethiopia, destination Kenya. Some competitors have encountered mechanical problems, and the organisers have reported an issue with the exhaust on the Caldwell/Burvill 912, but they dropped only three seconds on a long stage yesterday so it can’t be serious.

The 912 is currently 7th overall. The Van Cauwenberge 911 from the Tuthill Porsche stable is now up to 4th: yesterday, it finished a minute behind the modern 4wd Subaru that won yesterday’s stage. The 911′s position change came after a cracked sump for the BMW 5-series team.

The 964 C4 is in 26th position overall but is still running. This tough rally has quite a way to go yet. Here’s what Hayden said on Friday:

Here we are at the end of week 2 and the rally is already half over. We changed wheel bearings this afternoon when we got in. The inners were grumbling, which turned out to be rust from water invasion – probably from one of the two severe pressure washings in Italy or Greece after the wet muddy stages in week one.

AC washed the air filters tonight and we have had a good look round, after the night drive at high speed over car-launching pot holes may have taken a toll. Shades of Khazakstan on the P2P: there were some brutal potholes, some we launched off at 120 km/h were potentially pretty harmful. The light weight of the 912 paid off for sure in these conditions.

Tomorrow will be a grind, with an 0630 start time and 750 km of hard work. Apparently a nice hotel waits at Aswas (?) we will see.